Dr. Shannon M. Oltmann is a library and information science scholar, focusing on intellectual freedom, censorship, privacy, and information ethics. Her work is mostly qualitative, examining how and why civil liberties such as freedom of speech become curtailed or enhanced. Much of her work has centered in public libraries, but Oltmann has also studied government agencies, art galleries, social media platforms, public court records, and other types of libraries.

She is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science, College of Communication and Information, at the University of Kentucky (https://ci.uky.edu/sis/).

Oltmann earned her Ph.D. in information science from Indiana University in 2012. Her dissertation studied restricted access to science policy from federal agencies. Oltmann’s Masters Degree is also from Indiana University, and her B.A. is from DePauw University.